cathyJ

I am pretty sure that poster is more about those old ( and now defunct )Playboy CLUBS that were around in the 60s & 70s than the actual magazine. As I remember, the clubs themselves were open to anyone of any age ( yes kids were allowed to enter with an adult ) as the clubs despite the Playboy name didn't allow nudity just women walking around in their "bunny" suits", really in that area they were not that much different than what one sees at Hooters today. When the 'guest" enters, he/she are given a key ( I believe that was the "membership" ) and their names are placed on a giant board for all to see under the words "..at the Playboy Club tonight". It didn't matter if one was a top TV star or someone working at the local gas station..if they showed up, their names would be on the board. Almost like going to some fancy party. Never been to a Playboy Club but I have known a few who had and all of them told me how upscale those places were, great food and live jazz and sometimes the chance to meet a big star. My uncle who at the time ran a supermarket went to the Playboy Club in Denver back in 1968 and not only did he meet the cast of the TV show Batman but he even had a drink with Alan Reed, who at the time was the voice of Fred Flintstone. That was part of the fun, one never knew who would be at the local Playboy Club. Those who were there could be anyone from the local bowling team or some PTA group to Elvis Presley or Dick Clark.

Some years back as part of their "remembering the past" series our local newspaper showed an old photo of the midway of our local county fair taken in 1958. Looking at the pic I noticed a game in the background that was giving away as prizes..LIVE CATS !! If that wasn't bad enough..the sign above this game spelled in these big letters "P*SSY" . Have no idea what the game was about muchless how to win those cats but it was kinda funny seeing that pic in the paper now. I guess the paper "censors" were outside taking a smoke break. I do remember as a little girl visiting the Shenandoah County Fair in Woodstock, VA and watching on stage with my parents this woman dancing to a disco song ( Leo Sayer's You Make Me Feel Like Dancing )..oh yeah she was covered with LIVE TARANTULAS..and this was located next to the fair's kiddieland too. I think I would have rather seen the Playboy bunny that this. Live tarantulas? Cats as prizes? Can't do any of that today without someone somewhere getting their dander up.

True its not always religion as to why some places are closed on Sundays or any other day of the week for that matter. Take for example "The Great Hagerstown ( Maryland ) Fair. Back in the 60s and 70s, that fair was huge. I believe at the time that was fair was even bigger than the fair in next county that being the Great Frederick Fair. Even though the fair ran for two weeks, they were closed on Sunday but it wasn't due to religious/day of rest reasons but rather per-order of the city of Hagerstown since the fairgrounds were located next to several different neighborhoods and the people who live in those neighborhoods has requested that. The Hagerstown Fair came to an end around 1982 but the "tradition" continues today with the Frederick Fair. The state of Virginia has two newspapers who to this day refuse to publish on Sundays. The Harrisonburg Daily-News Record and The Winchester Star. For years the publisher claimed it was strictly an issue of money and not religion as to why no paper on Sundays. That and the "fact" they claim that no news happens in those two cities. Of course one can argue about that since both Harrisonbrug and Winchester are two of the fastest growing cities in the state and both cities have their own local TV stations which do air news on Sundays ( Winchester's is about to launch a 60 minute local Sunday TV newscast next month ) so the paper's "opinion" of "nothing happens around here"..well maybe it very well could be a religious reason as to why no Sunday paper from them but they don't want to admit to that. Just a guess.

The founder Truett Cathy is a Southern Baptist and the Sunday closings is due to his relgious beliefs even though several years ago I can remember when Kohls Department Stores had questioned that by making some statement saying that Sundays is when fast food restaurants are usually dead in terms of business so that is why Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays. of course how does Kohls really know about fast food anyway ( that would be like Kohls speaking for Six Flags ) and Kohls retracted from saying that statement.

My husband for many years had lived in Martinsburg, West Virginia ( a small town located some 70 miles west of Washington DC ). Earlier today we were doing some cleaning at my father-in-law's house only to find a July, 14th 1977 copy of the Martinsburg Evening Journal. At the time the local Berkeley Plaza shopping center was sponsoring a carnival that was to run for two weeks however in 1977 from what the article said the town of Martinsburg had some law on their books at the time that said that with the exception of "entertainment for children", the adult rides and games were not allowed to operate on Sundays. Of course over the years Martinsburg had changed this "law"but remembering those days of "local blue laws" ( Gee do I fell old now !! ) I have to wonder if there were other places around the country back in those days ( or even now if its still in the case in some places ) that had such things on the books that had affected amusement parks. Any examples you can think of? I myself can remember back in the 70s and well into the 80's when Norfolk/Virginia Beach and pretty much that entire region had some strange law on the books that had banned the sale of clothes on Sundays but I don't think that included the sale, say T-shirts at Oceanview or even at BGE. Now over the years I have been told by a number of people that with Kings Dominion, thanks to Doswell's local blue laws back in the 70's there were some things that park could NOT do on Sundays. Of course I have heard different things like KD couldn't sell beer on Sundays to even some rides couldn't run. But I just don't remember Kings Dominion being any different on Sundays than they were during the other 6 days of the week. ...of course I was only a kid back then, like I would know at age 9 what the local liquor laws were back then LOL.

If you have the time there is the "Candy Cane Coaster" at Santa's Workshop near Colorado Springs. However the thing is, I really dont want to bring politics in this but in this case ,it can not be helped, is that Santa's Village has very close ties to Focus On The Family and Exodus International. So if an adult wants to ride this coaster, they really need to be legally married in the eyes of the law ( hey we are taling Exodus International Here ). In other words, if your wife/husband is with you..no problem. Otherwise, you would have much better luck at Fish & Farm since we are talking about the exact same type of coaster. Last year I had friends from the Denver suberb of Aurora who went to Santa's Village and no sooner as they got into the park they were reminded by their staff about the Focus On The Family connection so they went to Elitch Gardens.

Thats good advice Goliath513 but I should add to those who are planning to visit Denver for Elitches andLakeside try to avoid watching local Denver TV if you can...mainly the local newscasts. Why? Well a few months ago when I was in that city, Denver's KCNC "CBS 4 News" did a story about "how to beat the great depression" and in the story "suggested" that for 2009 Elitch Gardens and Lakeside should be on a rotating weekend schedule. In other words..Elitches would be open two weekends a month while Lakeside would be open the other two...and neither park should be open on weekdays. The purpose? Because for Lakeside and Elitches to be open 7 days a week and at the same time, well that would be totally unfair for the local Colorado kids who can't afford to go to an amusement park this year. Anyway even though this is only KCNC's "opinion" some are taking that as fact even though its not true. If an out-of-towner would have seen that newscast..chances are they wouldnt even bother hitting either park. Besides if Elitches had plans on doing this then why in the hell are they selling season passes? LOL and I am not going to begin about KUSA's "9 News" story I saw last year where between Elitches and Lakeside..3000 employees had lost their jobs due to the great Denver depression. I seriously doubt that. Hmmmm...if I counted the number of employees between both parks..I doubt I will get 2000, much less 3000.

I was actually thinking about this SFNO vs. New Orleans thing today. Would it had made any difference to any of this say had Six Flags reopened the park after Katrina...however only running a few flats and perhaps one food stand with a very limited staff while closing off the rest of the park to the public to see what they could do next? This way New Orleans would get their Six Flags back even if 80% of the park would be closed and Six Flags by having a very limited staff and running a few rides, that shouldn't be a cost problem. Six Flags could buy time this way while they ( and the city ) could decide on the future. Or did this contract state that ALL of the rides and attractions must be open?

That sounds a LOT like Bill Prettyman and the band Looking Glass ( they gave us the tune "Brandy". In the early 70s Prettyman was a big shot at Washington DC's WPGC radio and one day Prettyman found a 45 of an unknown group called Looking Glass and a tune called "Brandy". Prettyman gave the ok for his station to play it and the song became a smash. Looking Glass the band felt they would have more hits so out of kindness they turned over all the rights to Bill Prettyman. Anyway in the end..Looking Glass became a one hit wonder and Bill Prettyman took the cash he made from "Brandy" and ended buying a bunch of radio stations in Maryland and West Virginia such as WICO-FM/AM in the Salisbury-Ocean City,MD market. About ten years ago Prettyman sold most of his stations to other radio companies I believe for $200 million and he is still making money today off of "Brandy". As much money as Bill Prettyman had made over the years, hell he could have bought this place and all of the parks in Ocean City,MD ( his hometown ) like Trimpers and Jolly Roger...and he would still have several millions in his bank account.

Does this place still have that policy where only those "with child" can enter? Reason I ask, just last week I saw a news report on TV here in Virginia that said that many places who once had such a policy, today no longer do mainly thanks to the recession even though the reporter did add "..the fear of finding yourself in a controversy". Not sure if I buy the latter but I do buy the recession part as recently I was in Aurora, Colorado. The home of Amazing Jakes..a local family fun center. A few years back they had a Jeepers like policy banning adults without kids to enter however today..not only do they allow anyone to enter but they are even targeting businesses as a place to go for lunch saying their buffet is cheaper than Old Country Buffet, Cici's Pizza and the others. I guess its a case of you gotta do what you gotta do to survive in this economy.

That would be ones best bet. On a similar note..does anyone in the Hampton Roads area remember Jungle Falls in Virginia Beach. Today the place is known as Ocean Breeze Waterpark but back in 1984 I remember them being Jungle Falls and it was actually an amusement park with a small water park for the kids. The place had lots of flat rides but alas no coaster. However I do remember at the time watching someone from Jungle Falls on WAVY-TV 10 ( back in their "Daily News" days ) saying how there are big plans in store for Jungle Falls such as adding two coasters and a bunch of other rides including a giant ferris wheel that will give people a great view of the ocean and one of the largest kiddielands on the east coast. That was in 1984...in 1985 when we visited Virginia Beach we were told the place was shut down ( we didn't bother checking out the remains ). Then a few years later what was Jungle Falls became a waterpark. I wonder what happened that made them change direction? Virginia Beach politics perhaps?

Back in the 60s and early 70's, Norfolk, VA's WGH-AM 1310 ( Norfolk's big rock station at the time ) in some of their TV ads featured The Rocket at Ocean View Amusement Park. Back in those day I believe WGH had a small remote studio at the park either right next to or UNDER the Rocket and yes because of the location often one would hear the Rocket and the screams...on WGH.

while you are correct about PG County being the richest African American county in the state, I believe one big reason why so many people consider SFA and the like to be in a "bad area" can be traced back to the now defunct Capital Centre arena and the now defunct Landover Mall..both of which are close to SFA. For years many of the old DC retail chains like Hechts for example claimed the mall said the surrounding region was "in a bad area". Hechts I believe Hechts even refused to fully stock that store with its upscale items because of that. of course on the flip side that mall did have problems with management so maybe that "its in a bad area" was just an excuse on the part of Hechts. Then there was the Cap Center. Before MCI Center ( or whatever it is now ) was built, I remember watching DC TV about how so many people wanted a new arena to be built so they would "feel safe". However to my knowledge I don't recall anyone ever dying at the old Cap Centre. Fights? Drug Use? Sure..that has happened at ALL sports arenas at one time or another. But murders? People disappearing and were never seen again? The rumors I remember hearing but did those actually happen? Doubt it.

There are two things about the subject of gay marriage that makes me wonder... 1. How come the US Supreme Court hasn't ruled on this but rather has allowed the states to deal with it? Please correct me if I am wrong but I don't recall any state ever having a popular vote on other touchy subjects like abortion or even inter-racial marriage. I can see both sides of this. I really do. The fear from those against that it will pass in Supreme Court and the fear of those for that such a passage would result in an increase of gay bashing/deaths ( EG: more cases like Matthew Shepherd ) Then again by leaving the issue to the voters, there are those out there who are so extreme on the subject. Sounds crazy but there are those out there who can't handle the sight of two people of the same sex even being near each other and it doesn't matter to them if the two are gay or simply "very good best friends". Like the woman who lives in a town not far from me. She calls herself an "ex-gay" and from those who I met who knows this woman, they tell me that she can't handle seeing two girls walking beside each other in the local mall without thinking "lesbian". Then just last month I read on another site about how in California two guys were having lunch together were forced to leave a restaurant because another customer had complained to the manager on duty that those two guys having lunch without a woman present looked "too much like a marriage" and that went against "prop 8..the will of the people". Again sounds crazy but those types of people DO exist. 2. After a state bans gay marriage, amends their constitution...I have to wonder how long will it be before some state someplace decides that they that should that extra step...the banning of gay people from living there? is this even possible? How could be it enforced? I know in Virginia some years back not only did the voters ban gay marriage but also civil unions and domestic partnerships as well. Many companies who offered domestic partnership benefits stopped due to the law and some towns/cities/counties started to define "family". Case in point..the city of Winchester. Some years back they felt they need to "define" family and as I can recall at first they wanted to outlaw to unrelated members of the same sex from living together.. Of course that "law" never happened as I was told because of the fear of lawsuits and the ACLU but at the time the local paper felt it was a good idea. Kinda scary actually.

It also didn't help that Wild World back in the 80's didn't exactly have a good reputation. Back in 1984 ( give or take a year or two ) a young girl drowned in the Wild World wave pool. If that wasn't bad enough, Washington's channel 5 actually showed the body on their 10:00 News floating in the wave pool ( the girl died wearing a Garfield the cat bathing suit ). Of course Channel 5 got some flap showing that but still it gave the "idea" to many folks that Wild World simply wasn't safe. Come to think of it I believe that was the reason why Splashdown Waterpark in nearby Manassas, Virginia was built. To provide a "safer" waterpark. Even though I am pretty sure that place had a few drowning incidents of their own over the years.

In the past recessions that had taken place over the years that would be the case. This year? Well I have to wonder about that. The big thing to remember this time around is that there is a lot of media out there who feel people shouldn't waste their money on theme parks. Between telling people " YOU WILL GET LAID OFF...no its not a maybe but YOU WILL BE FIRED", or reporting every day about where some company is laying off hundreds or thousands of employees or even point blank "..don't do theme parks", I can't see how any of this would benefit anyone. My husband is a big fan of radio station 700 WLW in Cincinnati and just this past weekend he was telling me that some host on WLW was telling listeners to avoid "money wasting garbage" such as Kings Island, Coney Island, SFKK and Cedar Point while in Denver, KCNC-TV channel 4 recently held a "town meeting" talking about our current "Great Depression" and how to survive through it and one of KCNC's ideas was "..this year don't do Elitches, Lakeside and Waterworld..instead take in a cheap movie or go bowling...just spend as little money as you can this year.." San Diego's Belmont Park...a lot of people aren't spending money there because KGTV and KFMB television are telling people they have an excellent change of getting fired from their jobs this year..so....don't spend your money on things you could live without. An employee from Belmont told me that was the case. This really is a media recession. Kindamakes me wonder just really how bad the economy really is? But either way, the constant talk on "Eyewitness News" ( or whatever ) about layoffs, people killing themselves over a lost job, why we should NOT spend money and so forth...I can't see how any of this is good for any theme park.

Of course not talking about those who made a "special appearance" or did a concert at a park, just some celebrity who just happened to be visiting a park while you were there. Dittos with carnivals too. Long before he became known as "Mr. Paternity Test', back in the 70's I do remember seeing Maury Povich standing in line to ride the Scobby Doo coaster at Kings Dominion. Oddly a few years later ( 1980 ) I remember seeing Oprah Winfrey doing the same and at the same ride too. Back in those days both Maury and Oprah were local TV news anchors in Washington and Baltimore. My husband claims he can remember seeing Jerry Springer at Kings Island back in the mid to late 70s ( 1978 I think ). This may have been around the same time Springer was mayor of Cincinnati. Back in 2007 during the Winchester, VA Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, I can recall when Mr. Vegas/Wayne Newton and his family showed up at the carnival. Wayne, his wife and a child were taking a ride on a kiddie coaster ( one of those Wacky Worm coasters ). Of course being the "big star" as he is ( or at least Wayne's opinion anyway LOL ), nobody else was allowed to ride that coaster while they were on it. Anyway after several circuits ( I am prety sure they were on that ride for a good 15-20 minutes ), once the Newton family got off I do remember some of the language the public were using while they were yelling at the family for "hogging" up the ride.

While that is true about the economy being quite poor in those states ( though I have friends who live in both Indianapolis and Cincinatti who claim otherwise ), I have to go with Rob about some of these places using the "economy" as an excuse. Also as far the ecomony in itself goes, the press really isn't helping. A few weeks back I was in San Diego. Of course I stopped by Belmont Park. While there I had the chance to talk to one of their employees and she was telling me they had been hearing such things from the public as this.. "...I would love to spend some money but channel 10 told us not too because of the recession" or even.. "..according to channel 8...I could be fired from my job tomorrow..better not spend my money on tickets...." Back during the Great Depression radio & newspapers tried to cheer the public up" Today it really is the other way around.

Terry, I used to work at SFoT on the youth weekends (Senior Night/Jeebus Weekend) in the mid-late 90s, I can tell you that its about the same thing, when it gets to be 3am, people start getting angry for some reason and start acting the fool. I witnessed one night where there was like 2-3 fights breaking out within a 10 mins period in the same area. Fellow co-worker got popped in the eye by an angry 17 yr old who he busted for smoking pot ... So yeah, a 24 hour theme park, save Las Vegas, isnt really a good idea... You are so right about that...at 3am people DO tend to get angry and/or..well weird !! For a number of years I used to do the overnight shift ( Midnight to 5am Monday thru Friday ) at a local rock station in my hometown. Come to think of it I can actually write a book about the calls I would get from listeners. Between Midnight and 2am...I would get calls from those who were staying up..nothing special but AFTER 2...UGH..the weirdos. Like the one call I received at 3am from a young man ( 20 years old ) who told me he had just murdered his younger brother. Of course I called the police even though at first I thought it was a sick joke. Imagine my shock and horror when I learned from the police that..HE REALLY DID KILLED HIS BROTHER !!! Anyway..at those late night hours..anything can happen. True it can be the the case during the other hours of the day and night but between those hours of 1am and 4am...the odds of the more bizarre stuff tohappen..it really does go up. So with that being said..a theme park opening all night...and on a full-time basis...NOT a good idea.

Actually freedom of speech/press pretty much only means the goverment ( such as the police for example ) won't get involved and have someone arrested over something they report, post, or say unless of course its a threat or something similar. For example say one day I decided to go on my radio show and say on the air as a joke that I have seen naked people riding Roar at Six Flags America and Six Flags found out about it. No Six Flags can't call the cops and have me arrested and put in jail over my "joke" but Six Flags could sue me over that ( joke or not ) if they can prove in court they had lost business over my statement and no I can't claim "free speech" as a way to protect myself either. With that being said I believe any business/person has the right to ask/try to get anything they want off from any website if they wish. However to actually succeed in doing that is much more harder. It really isn't easy to sue over such things. Really though truth be told, I doubt very much any theme park will go after a website demanding that pics of their rides or whatever be taking off ( for starters that would be bad PR for the park ) unless of course the site is of questionable nature which could hurt the business like the posting of theme park pics on a porn site for example.

True but even if the photos are done on public land that can be an issue as well. Say for example there is a carnival that is taking place in a shopping center and one of those stores in that shopping center is Kroger ( you can use any other retail store store for that matter since I know Kroger isn't everywhere ). Even if you shot the video from across the street and NOT on the actual property of that shopping center, if you as much as have a few seconds of a scene of that Kroger in your clip then Kroger has every right to get it removed from any website and someone from Kroger has the right to walk across the street and ask you to stop taking pics/filming.

Its the same thing with other businesses as well. A great example is shopping malls. Many of them don't allow pics to be taken inside the mall. The department store chain Kohls goes one step further..no pics..period. Not even the employees or media are allowed to do that, not even during Christmas parties. When I worked in radio, even though quite often we would snap pics inside such as in the studio for example but we weren't allowed to post them online and that was enforced, by other radio stations thanks to an "agreement" between my station and the others in the market due to those arbitron ratings. In other words a company like Clear Channel had the right to demand my pics be removed from a website even though I didn't work for Clear Channel. That would be like say Hersheypark demanding pics of Kennywood be removed from a site even though the two parks have nothing to do with each other. It is weird but "normal" in radio.

My co-worker was telling me today that recently she had uploaded a video on You Tube that she had taken some years back when she visited Hersheypark only to have You Tube pull the clip over copyright reasons "per request of Hersheypark" or so she says anyway. She also told me that in her Hersheypark clip that she had uploaded on You Tube there were a few minutes of a scene she took of the band "Live" when they were doing a show at that park's stadium so I wonder if that is the reason why her clip got removed. Anyway with that being said over the years I have heard that there are some parks that are a bit "weird" when it comes to picture taking as if they don't encourage it. Who? Why? Not talking about taking a camera on the ride itself but are there certain things in a park where one isn't supposed to be taking pics of? Now in the past I have heard of people who have taken pics of kiddie rides only to finding themselves into some hot water because they had taken pics of kids and their parents didn't like it. That happened at a local county fair not far from me a few years back. Plus I can remember back in the 80's Kings Dominon didn't allow "video taping" from anywhere inside the park, not even those then-brand new camcorders. KD never did say at the time why they weren't allowed though of course one can video tape stuff inside the park now.

Like you I have friends who "are in the biz" as well. And they have told me the same thing..that the business is down a bit but from what they told me it really isn't the recession why that is. Rather its a case of ppolitics and changing attitudes. For example Maxim Magazine is doing quite well and their demographic is about the same as Playboy, Hustler and the others...however Maxim doesn't show women in the all-together. It seems to work for them and of course the other areas in the adult entertainment business has noticed that. Recently I heard on a local radio station here that a local owner of those "gentlemen's clubs"..OK..nudie bars. Well I should say "former" nudie bars since those bars no longer feature nude women but now they feature them in bikinis..and their business actually increased as a result. Now with politics...the gay marriage debate I have been told has really hurt gay porn. One of my best friends, last year he did a gay porn flick only to get over 2000 hate emails because of his role in the movie and not from those one would expect who would send such things such as the right wing religious folks like the Fred Phelps types ( well he did receive a few emals from Exodus International but that was....well weird ), but 98% of those hate emails came from other gay men across the nation who really believe that their chances of getting married legally are damaged by..gay porn. Hmmmmmmmm.

I have those books ( and the one he did about Hersheypark ) and yes they are all quite good !!! Over the years I have heard that Jacques was working on books about other parks like Waldammer, Kings Dominon,Lakemont and Dorney Park but I don't think he ever did. MY husband told me awhile back that he had heard that Jacques has since died but I have yet to find anthing about that anywhere so perhaps my husband got some wrong info. Back in 1988 when I had a stopover at Denver's airport I remember seeing a book in one of the airport's gift shop about that city's two parks ( well 2 and a half )..Elitches, Lakeside and Heritage Square but shame on me...didn't buy it. I have been told that a few years back Roanoke,VA's PBS station WBRA-TV was offering a book to its members about the old Salem, VA Lakeside Park that closed in 1986. I went online and tried to find out more about this but turned up nothing. WBRA for the record never even bothered to answer an email I had sent to them about it either. I guess in WBRA's eyes, since I didn't live in their viewing area why should they bother.